Forina
by GingerDixie
Summary: Set 1,000 years after the events of Jirachi: Wish Maker, the Millennium Comet is soon to return and yet another threat looms over the Forinian region, straining an already tenuous bond preventing another war between the pokemon tribes. When a star unexpectedly falls from the sky, it seems it's all the excuse they need to fight once again.
1. Preface

_Reuploading some edited chapters after a couple of very helpful comments I received. Special thanks to Farla for her input, I've incorporated her advice in the hopes it can help Forina to be an all around better story. _

* * *

**Preface**

Forina hadn't ever been the same after the rising of the false groudon.

Granted, the power invested in Jirachi during his waking moments was enough to physically heal the land from the devastation the unholy creation wrought upon the region, but after it was destroyed and the Guardian-King returned to his rightful place, the tribes of Forina threw themselves into an uproar; anger and fear sprouting from the mass hysteria caused by the monster's appearance. Nothing of the sort had ever happened before; never in the thousands of years that Jirachi existed as the protector and and the source of energy for this natural environment free from daily human interaction had there been such a massive and destructive monster to take it all away, and the paranoia surrounding the notion that it could come again was enough to turn the native inhabitants against each other. It started as tiny squabbles, fights along the tops of the mountains and deep beneath the forest canopies that could be largely ignored, but eventually, these little skirmishes eventually snowballed into larger and larger wars, with feuds raging endlessly between the different tribes of every Forinian native. These became collectively known as the Schism, and for fifty years, the aftermath of each battle carved another scar into an already wounded earth. Once again, the pokemon were in danger; but this time, the only danger was from them.

That was a long time ago.

There were many attempts during the worst years of the Schism to stop the fighting, some from Jirachi himself by way of his absol proxy Umbran, but eventually, the only reason it ended was only by the will of the tribal leaders who were smart enough to see the damage that was being done, and in return expressed enough interest to influence their people to cease and desist. True peace never fully came; tribes of the forests, mountains, and rivers of this preserved natural habitat still hold deep-seated hatreds for each other. Even those pokemon originally not part of natural Hoenn fauna, the released pokemon of foreign trainers who eventually congregated and bred in Forina, were incorporated into the customs of the natives, even forming tribes and rivalries of their own.

Now, 1,000 years after the summoning of the false groudon and on the eve of the next Millennium Comet appearance, tensions were on the rise again in anticipation of another disaster. Even friendly tribes were wary of each other, and on the night that a star unexpectedly fell from the sky, it seemed it was all the excuse the tribes needed to once again start tearing each other apart.


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One**

Cold. Everything around her was freezing cold.

Cold trickled down Pan's unprotected, hairless arms in the form of glacial melt water; it fell in her face and grabbed at her sensitive nose as snow from above when a heavy guard shifted his weight a foot above her head. Cold raked across her back like claws when ice scraped against wood, it burned her feet when her guide forced her to halt, huddled in fur built for this extreme weather for what seemed like hours before it was deemed safe to continue on. By the time Pan and her guide Aurora had reached their destination, the nuzleaf was all too happy to spring from the icy prison that had been a melt water cave in a mountain glacier…but even here, near the summit of one of the highest peaks in Forina, she couldn't get away from it. The air was too thin, the wind was so cold…eventually, she found herself wishing she had the mossy fur of her parents…even if it would be insufficient for complete protection, it would be a better respite than bare wood.

It was midnight on the Great Mountain, and the waxing crescent of the moon cast a dim glow on the snow covering the slopes, giving the rocks an otherworldly glow that seemed to grow more intense the closer you were…not that the two pokemon ever strayed far from it, and eventually, the brightness began causing Pan to see spots in her vision every time she blinked. Not even her eyes were built for the ice, she thought bitterly as she watched Aurora toddle ahead of her clearly uninhibited; her blue-and-yellow cloak of fur hiding a black face (perfect for absorbing heat) and beady red eyes (perfect to minimize snow blindness). Below them, bearctics and abomasnows who guarded the royalty of their respective tribes stumbled lazily about their duties, their movements weighted by the sleep they'd been forced to take during the daytime in order for them to be available at this hour. Pan didn't pity them…they'd probably prefer this frozen part of the rock to duty on the lower slopes, where the weather was considerably warmer and vegetation actually _grew._

Not long after they'd left the ice tunnel, Aurora stopped the two of them at the mouth of a steep ravine. A river rushed noisily in the jagged cavern below, and precarious pillars of rock made for a makeshift path across. Pan made the terrible mistake of looking down, and immediately her mind reeled at the sheer height there was between them and the half-frozen water below. However, this was where Pan knew her skills would be needed. None of the other members of the Order had gone this way for exactly this reason, and wouldn't you know, the one without a single hair on her body would be the one with guiding the Ice type across an unstable path over an easy plunge to their doom.

Pan just hoped the rocks wouldn't be too slick.

"M-maybe you should cross first," Aurora finally stammered out, backing slowly away from the edge and shivering with fear. "Y-You know, in case it isn't safe…"

_Of course it's not going to be safe, _Pan thought in exasperation. _Nothing about it is safe, look at the damn thing! If we fall, we _die_. _

But Pan knew that Aurora has been asking lesser folk to take risks for her for the majority of her young life, it was simply what she was groomed to do. In all of the Forinian tribe's cultures, a shine-colored member was revered with the highest honor due to their rarity, and as Aurora also happened to be one of the offspring of her tribe's king and queen, she wielded power and authority that was akin to that of a demigod…as a result, she had become rather sheltered and spoiled. Of course, she felt rebellious enough to be wandering around unprotected at night, and Pan sensed it gave the young snorunt some sort of satisfaction that she could be included so readily in what was essentially a gathering of rubes, but if Aurora let anyone see that everything was simply a farce, it was Pan. Perhaps it was because Pan wouldn't tolerate her self-righteous behavior. Or maybe, the older pokemon assumed, it was only for the fact that she needed to show _someone. _

"Just hold tightly to my backside, and I promise you I won't fall, Aurora," Pan replied, briskly rubbing her hands along her arms in an attempt to thaw herself out. "I know it doesn't look very convincing at the moment, but trust me. How do you think I get myself across fragile branches on a daily basis?"

Aurora took in the sight of her friend before her…shivering and almost blue from what her people consider _mild _mountain weather, the leaf jutting from her head thrashing wildly with her movements. The tip of her nose, all eight of her fingers and all six of her toes were red from cold…and yet she still seemed confident enough to jump across a deep, waterlogged rift. Aurora didn't get it, and probably never would…but this was why she felt safe with Pan. Nuzleaf were either incredibly stupid or incredibly brave.

Pan knelt and Aurora hopped up onto her back…the nuzleaf hissed and clicked an annoyed battle cry at the cold of the snorunt's paws…but after giving Aurora enough time to find a good hand and foot hold, Pan wasted no more time and leapt immediately for the nearest pillar.

It was hard work, of course. The first rock Pan jumped on she almost feared she would skid right off because the water stood in the slightly concave top like a miniature lake…luckily, it wasn't frozen and all it took was for Pan to lock all of her muscles and bear down as hard as she could before she stopped sliding altogether. Aurora's paws dug hard into her back, but Pan knew she wouldn't fall. The princess had one hell of a grip; she'd survive well in the trees if she could climb. By staying on all fours, listening to the sound of wood scraping rock and concentrating only on the opposite side, Pan had them safely across in no time at all. "See," she addressed the frightened Snorunt on her back. "Didn't I tell you I would make it? You're safe, my Lady, and you can loosen the death grip on me now."

Slowly, Aurora's eyes opened, and as she took in the sights around her the grip on Pan's shoulders lessened; until she was sliding off her back and trotting ahead of the taller Grass type as if they hadn't just had a brush with death itself. No thanks, but Pan knew it was in there somewhere. She'd grown used to these airs of bravado…she'd learned to extract the thanks from behind the proud, royal gaze in her friend's eyes.

Or maybe, Pan could smell the acrid scent of burning tree bark that indicated their meeting place was close by, and the prospect of warmth was all she cared about for the time being.

* * *

It was rather a funny story of how a Grass type with no tolerance for the uppity behavior of tribe royalty befriended an Ice type; especially an Ice type from a species Pan was supposed to loathe and with all of the smug mannerisms that came with aristocracy. Pan herself was simply just another pokemon; one of many children from a shiftry couple who made up a large forest tribe of similar species. Pan's first meeting with Aurora had been entirely by chance, and, in all fairness, she hadn't originally planned to have anything to do with her.

Humans were a rare sight in Forina; it was one of the few places in the known world where humans left pokemon to their own devices. However, when Pan sighted humans, be they lost hikers looking for a trail or pokemon scientists looking to study them in their natural habitat, she always made it a game to see how much of her harassing they could take before they cracked and fled the area. She was a wild prankster by nature, and usually, she would pick up a few of her friends and follow her targets around everywhere, the nuzleaf themselves staying in the shadows of the trees and doing whatever they could to spook and irritate them. They'd knock on hollows in the trees, whistle with leaves and swipe small items from their satchels when they weren't looking…only to drop them on their heads when they were. On one particular day, however, Pan had gotten so wrapped up in her harassment that she hadn't noticed when she separated from her party…that is, until one of her target's houndoom caught scent of another pokemon and took off howling.

Fearing for her friends, she followed the human and his pokemon for a good distance through the trees, occasionally calling out in hopes her group would respond and praying that it wasn't their scent the Fire-types had detected. However her fears were quickly assuaged as she finally located her party safe and sound in a large tree at the edge of the forest, and the human and his houndooms sped past without a single glance upward…Pan could now see that the quarry the dog-like pokemon was after was much more valuable than a group of common nuzleaf, for not too far up the hill from the forest a shine-colored snorunt, clearly lost and disoriented from being so far from its mountain home, sat frozen in the middle of the clearing.

Up until then, Pan had never seen a shine-color. The brightness of the snorunt's fur was distracting to say the least, and for a few moments, she couldn't help but stare. But one of her friends quickly alerted her that it didn't seem as if the human wanted to back down…already he was grinning in that wicked way that humans do when they see something they want and reaching in his belt for a pokeball to toss at the frightened Ice-type.

No matter what tribe you belonged to and whether you lived in the mountains, forests or caves of Forina, nothing terrified a Forinian more than being captured, and to stand by and watch the capture of someone, especially a pokemon held in such high regards as a shine-color, was considered the ultimate act of cowardice.

So, of course, Pan had to act.

It took the combined power of her entire group to chase the poacher and his pokemon away, and even then, most of them didn't escape unscathed. Pan herself had gotten singed from her shoulder and down the right side of her arm from a fire-breathing attack, and one of her friends passed out when the other houndoom decided to bite his nose, almost instantly draining his power to the point where the remainder of the group had to ignore their injuries in order to haul him back to the colony to be revived. It was decided that it was Pan's duty to return the shine-color back to her home in the mountains, which meant she was entreated to the young pokemon's incessant tirade about how she could have handled it perfectly well on her own, thank you very much. Once she hit the snow, Pan was happy to feel as if she was rid of the stuck-up child for good, even if she was a shine-color.

But then Dosan, an abomasnow who happened to be part of the Order, brought the youngling to one of their meetings, and Pan's tentative relationship with her had budded from there. Pan knew that it was because part of Aurora admitted that she owed something to her, and despite Pan's dislike of her attitude, she still remembered that Aurora was very young…and for that, she could set aside her personal feelings in favor of protecting the snorunt from getting in far over her head again.

They reached the mouth of the cave and were immediately greeted by a roaring fire and Pelee, a female heatmor who had come here from the volcanic area around Mount Cragg. She'd been the one to pick this particular meeting spot for the Forinian Order, probably because it wasn't far from her home and her body was at such a high temperature that she could largely ignore the cold. _She probably even melted all the snow in her path on the way over here, _Pan thought with a twinge of jealousy as she made her way over to the fireside…however, she was very nearly tripped up as Aurora shoved past her to get to the far side of the cave where it was still cold, causing Pan to click at her in annoyance and surprise. She took her seat and extended her hands and feet toward the flames, sighing in relief as the heat spread from her extremities to melt the ice from her core.

Neither of them spoke for a long while as a few other members began to filter into the cave, immediately taking respite by the fire as soon as they could save themselves from the frigidity of the mountain air. Among the next to appear were Arsen, a male swalot who was one of the oldest members of the Order, and a masquerian couple called Sanguino and Sangria; seasoned warriors that were respected by their swarm for fighting bravely in countless battles against the territorial river tribes. Not long after, a shivering kadabra and grumpig joined them, neither of which Pan had met before. As more pokemon grew sick and tired of their tribes' warmongering, more new faces joined the Order so they would be able to have a say in putting a stop to it once and for all, and since it seemed as if predominantly Psychic-type tribes were some of the worst in the region, it was nice to see at least a few of them _weren't_ hell-bent on destroying each other.

"So," Pelee spoke up when it seemed no one else in the room wanted to be the first to break the ice. "I take it everyone had a relatively safe climb to the top? It seems that everyone's limbs are intact."

Pan had to choke back a laugh at that statement, giving Aurora a look that could wilt flowers before speaking. "Not that I necessarily agree with tonight's gathering being held in some Arceus-forsaken mountain cave, but the route that my guide instructed we take made me feel lucky that we even made it here in the first place," she sniffed, extending her hands so close to the fire her palms were in danger of being set alight. "I hadn't realized a species that doesn't have much going for it in the speed and agility department crosses nearly impassible rifts on a daily basis."

"Okay then, how about next time I take you through snow banks that pile high over your head?" Aurora retorted, her eyes flashing with indignation. "You were shivering before we even got up onto the peak; you wouldn't have lasted a second going straight up through the snowline!"

"That's because you took me through a tunnel _made of ice._"

"So you're telling me you _wanted_ to be spotted by guards."

"I'm telling you that if you really knew the mountain as well as you claimed, you would have picked an easier route!"

Pelee listened to the two of them fight like hatchlings, a paw clamped firmly over her snout in exasperation. She expected this sort of behavior from Aurora, but Pan was an adult and therefore should know better than to be so petty. Luckily, it seems that the seasoned members (who more or less predicted some sort of squabble breaking out between them) are doing their best to ignore it, while the two new inductees gape in surprise at how hostile two members of a peaceful organization could be to each other. By the time the nuzleaf and the snorunt had finished lobbing insults at each other, the cave had lapsed back into tense silence and ten other Order members had snuck in, including Dosan the abomasnow and Byron the conkeldurr, the two pokemon appointed to lead tonight's meeting. Pelee stood aside, allowing the two beefy males center stage, and with the pounding of one of Byron's pillars on the stone floor of the cave officially calling the meeting to order, everyone stood in respect.

"Welcome, new and old members alike," Dosan intoned in a surprisingly quiet voice that was much unlike his usual boisterous barking. "Here, you must forget your alliances, because we are all allies here. You must shake hands with your rivals, because you must realize at the end of the day, we are pokemon all the same. We are the shred of sense in a land where war and specialism has become the number one answer to everyone's problems. We stand on the cusp of the biggest event in Forina, an event that happens only once in a thousand years, teetering on the brink of another Schism that will surely destroy us all.

"You are here because you see this for what it is, and you would like to stop it. Tonight, we are going to tell you how you can start. Pokemon of all tribes, welcome to the Forinian Order."


	3. Chapter Two

_The concept of the planet Psybemu as well as the beheeyem Superiors are borrowed with permission from user Fishlover on Deviantart. _

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**Chapter Two:**

_Stars above, would you just _look _at this view? _

Through the layers of tint she'd had to apply to the visor of her ship in order to keep from going blind, 1025 still had to admit that in this particular position, with Earth blocking the worst of Sol's light from her immediate view, she could fully enjoy the stars that twinkled further away in the black void of space in all of their beauty…not to mention a nice view of an incoming comet that, according to the onboard computer's calculations, should be crossing paths with the planet within the next two weeks. For someone who had slept through the majority of her ship's travel from her home planet to this one, opening her eyes to take in the sights of space without an atmosphere to distill the best parts was truly a treat indeed…even if it was to be short-lived.

1025 was on a mission. The beheeyem had been sent to Earth by order of the Superiors of her planet for a routine analysis of the biosphere, both to relay recent information about the conditions of the exile colony deposited in a desert region years ago and to collect samples to be used for medical and agricultural research on her planet. It had only taken her a few hours to pilot her ship here from her home world of Psybemu, and in the few minutes that she had until her ship's autopilot lined up with the coordinates she had previously entered into the computer, she had the time to collect her thoughts in the void of space before she faced the surface of the planet below.

It would be her first time facing the Earth environment, and needless to say, 1025 was a little apprehensive about it. Not many of her people who had been sent to the planet with the same objectives as her had come back with a positive view of it, and nearly every other beheeyem she talked to feared exile to here as the worst thing that could possibly happen to them. The only civilized race on the planet enslaved animals to fight for them, but even that wasn't much improvement from the wilderness, for the wildlife of the planet was rumored to be just as bloodthirsty, if not more so.

As an elgyem child she had simply waved all of this away as a fabrication of her elders; a story told to all young Psybemians in order to scare them into doing well in their studies and obeying the laws of the Superiors, but as she had grown older, the way the stories were told lost the whimsical feel of a hatchling's tale. 1025 began to hear a genuinely earnest tone in the horror stories seasoned explorers told to one another. Even the Superiors themselves issued decrees of exile to Earth as if it really were as horrible as her people thought they were…the captain of the Armada had shuddered when he heard of that one of his best males was exiled to the desert colony for cheating on his assigned mate. It both intrigued and worried the fledging scientist that she would soon know exactly what lay in store for her miles below…but at least it comforted 1025 to know that she had at least come prepared in case she was attacked upon contact with the surface.

An alarm on the ship's interface sounded at that moment, breaking 1025 out of her reverie and alerting her that the coordinates had been reached, and the ship would immediately begin landing procedures. All of her previous worry was momentarily put on the back burner as the scientist confirmed her coordinates, initiated the landing sequence, and opened up a communication link straight to the Superior's office, where they awaited her call.

"Superior, this is 1025 confirming coordinates reached on Terran surface. I repeat, coordinates reached and confirmed, landing sequence initiated. Confirm permission to land."

With the rest of her ship operated either by computer or by the power of her brainwaves alone, 1025 had nothing else to do but strap herself back into the pilot's chair and take hold of the yoke, preparing for a manual landing should the autopilot system fail. An indent in one of the yoke's handles indicated for a certain colored finger on 1025's hand, and upon pressing them where indicated, the ship's backup thrusters sparked to life, stabilizing her in orbit in order for her to make a relatively accurate landing.

"1025, this is Superior. Permission to land confirmed."

The main thrusters activated on 1025's cerebral command, and immediately the ship shot forward, pressing the female into the cushion of her seat with such force that it was a miracle her arms weren't wrenched from their sockets as she tried to keep hold of the steering yoke. The blue-and-green of Earth's surface began to fill her ship's visor as the craft sped closer and closer to the planet's atmosphere and, ultimately, the surface.

"S-Superior, t-this is 1025 confirming a-atmosphere b-breached! I-I repeat, a-atmosphere breached! S-S-Ship status r-remains u-unchanged!"

The yoke was vibrating madly in her hands, making it increasingly difficult to hang on and help keep the ship on course…however, with the help of 1025's psychic ability; she was able to keep her hands clasped firmly over the handles. The front of the ship began to glow as the heat shield began to absorb the energy caused by such a high-velocity entrance…not that it would necessarily diffuse any of the heat it absorbed.

"1025, this is Superior. Ship status is confirmed."

That was when the engine failed.

There had been no warning, no sign of any stress in any part of the ship, and 1025 had expected the heat shield to hold out as it was designed to do for landings at this high rate of speed. Yet the next thing that the beheeyem experienced was a deafening explosion as the main thrusters blew, the fuel sparked by the energy radiating from the heat shield and igniting a massive fire in the rear of the ship.

Alarms blared from all over the control interface, and suddenly the heat inside the cabin had intensified one-thousand fold, searing the alien's backside and throwing her against her seat restraints. Not even her psychic powers could help her hold on now, and finally she was forced to let go of the yoke, officially losing all control of her ship.

"1025, this is Superior! Your ship is transmitting major mechanical failure messages; respond!"

In a last ditch effort to try to regain control, 1025 made a feeble attempt to reach for the yoke again, but the heat was so intense, and her pain so severe, that her hand didn't even come close to touching it, and it was forced back into her chest by the ship's G-forces as it exited the final layer of the atmosphere and lapsed into an unstable aileron roll.

"1025, please respond! Your ship is transmitting multiple failure messages and our computers indicate you are far off course!"

Her vision was going dark, and now even the alarms had fallen silent in comparison to the blazing inferno behind her. If she remained here, 1025 knew she would surely die…so she summoned up her last ounce of strength and focused completely on what she had seen when observing the Earth from above…rocky, forested terrain, crisscrossed with rivulets of water that ran down mountainsides like teardrops…

"1025, respond! Impact is imminent and your ship is in bad repair! Report your coordinates for rescue!"

Her body began to glow, and within minutes, she had teleported from the ship.

"1025, respond immediately!"

Only seconds later, the craft exploded in midair, raining flaming debris on the land as 1025 lost consciousness in the forest below.


	4. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three**

A moon's shift into the Forinian Order meeting, and Aurora was already bored.

While Pan had immediately become absorbed in the Order's agenda, playing her part and relaying what problems and improvements the shiftry tribe had experienced this past phase, when it got right down to it, everything the Order talked about was simply another rehash of any tribal politics lesson her parents had ever given her; lessons that the young snorunt had long ago deemed unimportant in the first place due to her status in her family. True, she was of royal lineage, but shine-colors weren't allowed to be rulers. It was simply putting an already highly-valued member of society in a position of great risk, not to mention it jeopardized the meaning of a tribal king or queen being both a physical and metaphorical representation of the pokemon they ruled. Besides, even had she been normal, Aurora was far from becoming a successor to the throne with 28 brothers and sisters ahead of her.

Well, at least she wasn't alone in this part of the cave. Since Dosan and Byron had called the meeting to order, several more Ice-type members who straggled in shied away from the fire and came to sit beside her in the frozen part of the grotto, clinging to ice-coated stalagmites as members reported the troubles that had arisen in their respective areas of Forina. As usual, these fellow mountain-dwellers showed the princess proper respect…but only what was to be expected to be shown to an esteemed member of a different tribe. Aurora had learned to become used to commoners who would not bow for her, those who held her gaze or stared at her pelt; she'd learned to swallow her pride somewhat, just as Pan was always yelling at her to do.

The adults droned on, and Aurora tried as hard as she could to look interested, to show a genuine curiosity whenever her nuzleaf companion looked over her shoulder to make sure the shine-colored youngling was still paying attention…but the more she sat still, paws folded in front of her in the most innocent gesture she could think of, the more she itched to do _something_ other than take part in this common drivel.

That's when a glint of light from the shadows caught the young snorunt's wandering eyes.

It had been very brief; like a beam of light reflected from the carapace of a steelix as it momentarily breached its burrow, or the flash of rainbow from her fur that many of her subjects claimed to see when they passed her by; the gaudy "shine" that gave her kind their common name and the reason her parents had called her Aurora. Wherever the flash came from, it must have caught the light of the fire, because beyond the room where the Order had gathered, the rest of the cave was dark as night. And given how quickly it had appeared and disappeared, Aurora thought that…perhaps, there might be a pokemon watching from the side.

It wasn't too farfetched an idea. Aurora's mother constantly warned her that there was always the possibility of an enemy stalking nearby; a saboteur from an enemy tribe, a human poaching for rare pelts, a trainer looking for a slave to train. She had meant for these lessons to instill a sense of caution in her daughter, but all Aurora could think of when they came to mind was finding and fighting the enemy, getting rid of the threat all at once so that it would be one less foe to worry about when the time came. And so that was what she imagined was the right thing to do…find the pokemon that made the flash…and get rid of them before they caused harm to her or to the rest of the Order.

Just as Aurora hopped to her feet one of the Order's guards sounded an alarm at the mouth of the cave, allowing the snorunt enough time to slip away from the chaos and after the mysterious glint, pushing past a group of cryogonal who had been dozing off along the dampened walls as the political talk buzzed around them. As the light of the fire faded behind her, however, her vision began to rapidly decline, until Aurora couldn't even see the sheen in her pelt anymore. There was no way she'd be able to spot her mysterious lurker in here…and by now, she'd wandered in far enough that her tiny eyes could only register the faintest of glows from the flames.

Well, apparently her hunting would have to rely on touch for the time being.

As Aurora turned and spread her arms out to feel her way along the rough, chilled stone of the cavern, another flash of light caught her eye…however, this time, the source simply hung suspended in the air above her…a red, faintly luminous orb that swayed back and forth above her, as if swinging from some sort of cord or vine. She'd never seen anything like it before.

"…Hello?"

No answer came from the orb, so the young shine-color leaned forward, her paw outstretched as if to grab it.

A small pupil flashed instantly into the orb's center, and before Aurora had time to react, a large, metal club forced itself over her mouth to muffle her scream, as four black tendrils of shadow shot from the darkness to stay her arms and legs.

Struggle as she might, the snorunt couldn't force herself from her captor's grasp, despite her bond being light enough to feel as if it were only a cuff of mist holding her in place. She couldn't scream, she couldn't fight, she couldn't do anything as the remnants of the fire disappeared into the distance while she was dragged into the unknown, away from the safety of her guardian and the Order. Her thoughts were too chaotic for her to even focus on using her powers…the one thing she could think clearly of, however, terrified her so much that the princess didn't think using her powers would do her any good anyhow. It was a terrible word, something the leaders spat like a curse, and it was a part of Forina that none of the tribes dared to speak of, even in political talks. They were the Ghoul Bands, and they were beyond reasoning.

And now, they've gotten her.

* * *

"…A-And then it landed in the western horizon, down by the upper riverbanks," the breathless loudred guard stammered, pointing in the direction of a long plume of smoke billowing up from the trees some distance away. Some of the representatives from Water tribes gasped and began to converse among themselves in worried tones, Byron pounding one of his pillars for silence as Dosan tried his best to listen to everything the guard had to say. "It…it looked like a shooting star, except it sparked and glowed with this eerie green hue, and when it exploded, there was a noise like a crash of thunder; like the aftershock of an electric attack!"

"Perhaps it was an electric attack?" Ampule, a member of the manectric elite, barked in reply. "I know of many tribes who would shoot down an encroaching Flyer if they did not heed previous warnings, and many of them do end up falling from the sky in such spectacular ways that many pokemon are talking about it for days after!"

"But what type of pokemon do you think would discharge a green bolt?" Arsen retorted, shaking his head. "I've never seen such a thing in my life; what a strange sight indeed! Perhaps the guard's vision was fuzzy from staring ahead for so long?"

"I swear to you that's _exactly _how it appeared to me!" the loudred bellowed. "Surely you all heard the explosion? It was loud enough to hurt even my own ears!"

"Of course we heard it," Byron muttered, drawing himself up to his full height as he addressed the guard. "We may not have heard it the way you did, but we definitely heard it. And this _is_ something that warrants investigation." The large male turns to two members of his own tribe, a set of timburr brothers who immediately went rigid as their superior addressed them.

"Caesar, Claudius, muster the guards waiting at the foot of the mountain and scout the area. Assist tribe members if you have to…since whatever it was landed right in the middle of claimed territory, there's bound to be injuries and most likely casualties involved. Tell them the Order is available to send more extensive help if needed."

The two saluted and immediately began their hike down the path they'd taken to come here, and Byron was able to turn his attention to the rest of the group…just in time to catch Pan darting from the mouth of the cave, eyes wide and her breathlessness apparent in her voice as she spoke.

"B-Byron, Dosan! Aurora's gone, and I…I heard something coming from deeper in the cave. I think we're being watched by a Ghoul Band…we've got to get her out of there!"


End file.
